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Confusion reigned supreme on whether or not Smita Thackeray, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's estranged daughter-in-law, will join the Congress on April 15.
Mumbai Congress president Kripashankar Singh categorically denied she would join the party. But Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Huss

Confusion reigned supreme on whether or not Smita Thackeray, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's estranged daughter-in-law, will join the Congress on April 15.

Mumbai Congress president Kripashankar Singh categorically denied she would join the party. But Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Hussain Dalwai said Smita's entry to the party was certain and only the date had to be worked out.

Smita herself remained unavailable for comment.

Singh blamed the media for reports that she was likely to join the party on April 15.

"A few journalists were chatting with me. They suggested that I meet her. I told them that she had gone to Delhi and her issue will be resolved at that level," Singh said.

Dalwai, however, insisted that Smita's entry into the Congress was absolutely certain. When asked if it was her surname that gave her an edge, he said the party already had a Thakre (state Congress president Manikrao Thakre).

Once a confidante of the Shiv Sena patriarch, Smita was gradually sidelined after Uddhav Thackeray took over the reins of the party.

She fell out with the Thackerays last year after she wrote an article in a leading Marathi daily, criticising the Sena's politics of language and regional chauvinism.

She later showered praises on Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in an attempt to rehabilitate herself.

Smita had divorced the Sena patriarch's son Jaidev but continued to stay with Bal Thackeray at his bungalow and retained the family surname.

It is this surname that the Congress hopes to cash in on if she joins the party. The party would get a chance to mock at the Thackeray clan saying even family members don't agree with their policy of regional chauvinism.

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